The Conditional in German. (u 



sliould represent the relation of a negatived reality by that 

 relation of time which denied most decidedly the reality in 

 time ( present) : viz., by the past. Grammar especially should 

 consider speech-forms, not according to the relation of the 

 outer form, but according to their signification; it should 

 tlierefore j)resent the forms of the Conditional, not as the 

 Latin Grammar, and following this usage the German Gram- 

 mar earlier, as tense-forms of the Subjunctive, but as special 

 modal forms. In the dependent clause the use of the Con- 

 ditional is like a preterite of the independent clause, but it 

 has here, as above stated, lost its fundamental meaning. The 

 fundamental idea of the Conditional excludes time altogether, 

 or at least distinguishes time less than any other mode. The 

 same tense-forms of the Conditional, though derived from a 

 preterite tense-form, denote, with more freedom than the 

 Ijresent of the Indicative, present and future time. e. r/.,Waere 

 er ( jetzt) krank, so arbeitete er nicht (or, so wuerde er nicht 

 arbeiten); Wenn er morgen kaeme, waere er mehr willkom- 

 men sein, als heute (or wuerde er mehr willkommen sein); 

 Utinam eras veniret! It is remarkable in this respect that 

 the O.H.G. had only one form of the Conditional to express 

 not only the present and future but also the past, e. g., Ni 

 wari tho thin giburt, tho wurti worolt firwurt; sia satanas 

 ginami, ob er tho ni quami; Oba er (Adam) iz firliazi, odo iz 

 got biliazi, ouh worolt ni gigiangi in thesa goringi (Otfrid). 

 Even in dependent clauses where the Conditional assumes the 

 signification of the Subjunctive, the present also expresses 

 the past, e.g., Ouh u' ist. ther er gihorti so fronisg arunti; 

 n' ist wib, thaz io gigiangi in merun goringi; Thaz thu unsih 

 nu gidua wis. oba thu gotes sun sis, zi kriste er thih ginauti, 

 ioh hera in worolt santi (Otfrid). The periphrastic Condi- 

 tional ( icli wuerde sprechen) cannot therefore be found in 

 O.H.G. because in O.H.G;. the future of the Indicative is not 

 at this time formed by ircrdcn. Thus in dependent clauses 

 where the Conditional has the signification of the Subjunc- 

 tive and where we in general express the future by a future 

 form we always find the present in O.H.G.. e.g., Ther gotes 

 geist, ther mo ana was. ther gihiaz imo thaz, thaz krist er 



